Ramachandran: The Titan behind Atlas
Dr. M.M. Ramachandran (popularly known as Atlas Ramachandran) is an Indian businessman, film producer, and actor.
He is the chairman of the UAE-based gold and jewellery chain Atlas Group, and has been in the news recently for his arrest as a result of financial woes.
Ramachandran has been ranked among the ‘100 Most Powerful Indians in the GCC’. He built the group organisation from the ground, with the first showroom opened in Kuwait City in the 1980s.
He later founded more than 50 establishments around the world, becoming becomes the first jewellery chain to have branches in all Gulf Cooperation Council countries by early 2000s.
Atlas reportedly pioneered transparency in the gold business by advertising the Atlas daily gold rates through mass media, something that is now the norm but was not followed at that time.
Ramachandran was arrested by the Dubai Police following defaults worth Dh53m.
Ramachandran’s Health
According to a Dubai Police source, the 74-year-old Indian trader is in a good health in general, but due to his age, he suffers geriatric diseases such as diabetes and blood pressure.
He added that Ramachandran is vegetarian, and has had a heart surgery in the past.
The source stressed the keenness of the Dubai Police to provide Ramachandran with proper healthcare, and noted that the septuagenarian has been provided with a nurse and a doctor residing permanently in the police station.
On the other hand, the source confirmed that the family and relatives of the trader continue to pay frequent visits to him, and leave clothing and food for him according to the schedule of visits.
The official source of Dubai Police expressed satisfaction with the reported information about Ramachandran’s intention to reach a settlement with the banks.
Group Diversification
In the late 1980s, Ramachandran took the Atlas Group into movie production. At the beginning of the millennium, Ramachandran further expanded into industries such as healthcare (Atlas Health Care), real estate (Atlas Gold Townships) and studios for advertising and photography.
In 2010, he made his directorial debut, with Holidays, a movie that flopped at the box office.
Financial Troubles
The group’s jewellery business has been facing financial trouble, with India’s Income Tax department holding simultaneous raids in February this year at 23 Atlas premises in India, including in Thrissur, Coimbatore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi.
Raids were also held at Ramachandran’s three houses, as well as the houses of the group’s five key employees in Thrissur and Ernakulam. The Indian I-T department suspected Rs30 crore tax evasion by the jeweller.